Notes

The title Rubycon relates to a story about Julius Caesar crossing the river Rubycon in 49 BC. He did it for "all or nothing", running into an unstoppable war. Hence the phrase "crossing the Rubycon" points out that a unreversable decision is made -- a point of no return.

TD entered the Manor Studio again in 1975 to record an album on which they developed a new kind of electronic rhythm. Rubycon featured much the same instrumentation as Phaedra. It also showed a certain distance to mainstream rock, in that it was a suite in two parts, taking up two entire sides of the album -- as did Mike Oldfield's mid-'70s albums Tubular Bells, Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn which were released by Virgin as well.

From 30 Years Of Dreaming

Already in January 1975, Tangerine Dream returned to the Manor studio to record their second album for Virgin Records. Among the "new" instruments used this time were a new Arp synthesizer, an Elka organ, a gong and a piano. Some of them were of course modified with electronic devices.

Both sides of the album contain one long piece of music, which was still a long way away from a traditional rock music concept. The sequencer parts and rhythms, which float in and out, are the dominant musical element. At the end there is a very grandiose part sounding like a choir, which can easily take your mind to scenes from Arthur C. Clarke's and Stanley Kubrick's fantastic science fiction movie "2001". In this "space odyssey", it was Gyorgi Ligeti who created the cosmic music for the soundtrack, but it could just as easily have been Tangerine Dream.

The recordings for Rubycon progressed much faster than with Phaedra and without any great difficulties. The album was quickly released, already in March the same year. Monique Froese had made the cover and somewhere in the pictures you can find a picture of a young boy...

Froese: "When the band walked into the Manor for the second time, we were weighted down by the pressure of the success of Phaedra. There was a pressure to do it again but one has to point out that Simon Draper (the producer) and Richard Branson at Virgin did not pressure us to be commercial. The attitude was that Tangerine Dream could do whatever they wanted to on record, which was a very unusual practice for a record company". (Interview with Mark Pendergast, January 1994, Tangents)

Froese: "When we did Rubycon we talked much about if we wanted a commercial success or if we wanted to be progressive on our own terms. And honestly we decided that it was mostly ourselves it was all about. We wanted to develop the music we liked the most and to express ourselves personally". (Tangenten No.6, 1994)

Froese: "The recording of Rubycon was a very floating process. Unlike the Phaedra production there was never a break in the creative flow. The band had been on tour for most of the previous year and was now hot to spend a month working on some new music. Because of the commercial success of Phaedra, the sequencers could now be technically better equipped. At that time this branch of technology was fairly unknown and any technical alterations had to be custom-built. This was a very extensive undertaking and most of our earnings went into new equipment."

"I had orchestral instruments recorded by the BBC for my Mellotron, at the time a very luxurious thing to do. One can hear an oboe on Rubycon, Part Two as well as numerous strings sections had horns. The biggest problem, however, was the inconstant power supply at the Manor. At the time there were electrical problems throughout the Oxford region and sometimes the power was cut off for two to three hours at a time. We had to interrupt recording sessions when this happened, to connect our synths to electrical generators. Chris' Moog often played completely random sequences because of the unstable electrical current driving the oscillators. It was a crazy situation. When we finished recording there were altogether 12 hours of music from which to mix the final master". (Interview with Mark Pendergast, January 1994, Tangents)

When Rubycon came out in March, Tangerine Dream were on a small tour in Australia, where the sales from Phaedra had given them a gold album.

On the cover, Tangerine Dream fans can find a small photo of Froese's son Jerome hidden inside the gate-fold, a touch that can be traced right back to Alpha Centauri. At that time no one could expect that Jerome Froese would become a regular member of Tangerine Dream fifteen year later. When Rubycon was released, it went straight to number 12 in the British charts, staying there for 14 weeks.

Backtracking with Tangerine Dream

Monique Froese: "I think Rubycon is my favourite cover design, because it is so simple, just one single droplet of water splashing onto the surface. I also like Tangram, because that's even simpler."

Edgar Froese: "Monique likes simplicity in all things. We've rarely put our own image on our record sleeves, not because we think we're so ugly, but our faces cannot explain what the music is about, so why put them on? Just because people like to identify with the personalities? They should really identify with the music."

(Interview with Johnny Black, thisBEAT, issue 17, April 1986)

Re-Releases

In 1984 the album was released on CD for the first time as part of a series by Virgin. With the exception of Exit, all releases of this series had a similar cover design, using only part of the original artwork in a monochrome border that featured the band and album title.

In 1995 Virgin re-released the album on CD in the so-called "Definitive Edition" series, featuring the original front cover artwork. In 2001, Rubycon became the first (and by now only) album by Tangerine Dream to be released on Super Audio CD (SACD) by Virgin. In 2005 the album was re-released in Japan with a cardboard sleeve featuring the exact replica of the original LP sleeve.

In October 2013 the album was re-released on vinyl as a limited edition picture LP. Unfortunately, the release turned out as a mispressing; it contains the music material from the LP Selling England By The Pound by Genesis which was released as picture LP at the same time (and is a mispressing as well, as it contains the music from Rubycon). At time of writing it is unknown whether these two albums are re-released once more.

Releases

Australia

1975: Virgin/Festival

LP: L 35399; multi-coloured label with sticker, foc

LP: L 35399; black/white labels, foc

LP: L 35399; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: L 35399; green labels, foc

Brazil

1975: Virgin/SOM

LP: VRLP 12002; multi-coloured labels

Canada

1975: Virgin/WEA

LP: VR 13-116; multi-coloured labels, foc

1975: Virgin/Polydor

LP: V 2025; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: V 2025; red/green labels, foc

1984: Virgin

LP: V 2025; red labels with white stripes

Europe

1995: Virgin

CD: 840 063-2; identical to UK version from 1995

2001: Virgin

SACD: 811 263-2; super jewel box

2013: Virgin/EMI

Picture-LP: 840 063-1; mispressing

France

1975: Virgin/CPF

LP: 940 505; multi-coloured labels, foc with order number on back side

LP: 940 505; multi-coloured labels, foc with order number on front side

1975: Virgin/Polydor

LP: 2933 716; green labels, foc

LP: 2933 716; red/silver labels, foc

1981: Virgin/Ariola

LP: 202 619; red/green labels, foc

1983: Virgin

LP: 70 038; red/green labels, foc

1984: Virgin

CD: CDV 2025; identical to UK version from 1984

Germany

1975: Virgin/Ariola

LP: 88 754; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: 88 754; green labels, foc

LP: 88 754; red/green labels, foc

1984: Virgin/Ariola

LP: 88 754; red/green labels

LP: 88 754; white/grey labels

CD: 610 377; identical to UK version from 1984 with the German order number on a sticker fixed on the jewel case

1993: Virgin

CD: 786 091-2

Greece

1975: Virgin

LP: 062-VG 50056; red/green labels

1975: Virgin/EMI

LP: 2J 062-98109; multi-coloured labels

Italy

1975: Virgin/Dischi

LP: VIL 12025; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: VIL 12025; green labels, foc

1984: Virgin

LP: OVED 27; red/green labels, foc

LP: OVED 27; red/green labels with order number VIL 12025, slightly different foc

Japan

1975: Virgin/Nippon Columbia

Promo-LP: YX-7035-VR; multi-coloured promo labels, foc

LP: YX-7035-VR; multi-coloured labels, foc

1978: Virgin

Promo-LP: VIP 6919; white promo labels, foc

LP: VIP 6919; green labels, foc

1982: Virgin/Victor

LP: VIP 4150; green labels

1990: Virgin

CD: VJCP-2514

Promo-CD: VJCP-2514; same as regular release, but with additional red promo sticker

2005: Virgin/Toshiba-EMI

CD: VJCP-68668; cardboard sleeve, obi

Promo-CD: VJCP-68668; same as regular release, but with additional numbered sticker on rear

2015: Virgin

SHM-CD [b]: UICY-76987; gatefold cardboard sleeve

Platinum SHM-CD [b]: UICY-40131; gatefold cardboard sleeve

SHM-SACD [b]: UIGY-9674; gatefold cardboard sleeve

Mexico

1977: Virgin/BMG

LP: LA 411

Netherlands

1975: Virgin/Ariola

LP: V 2025; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: V 2025; green labels, foc

New Zealand

1975: Virgin/EMI

LP: V 2025; multi-coloured labels, foc

197?: Virgin/RTC

LP: V 2044; red labels

LP: V 2044; red/green labels

Russia

199?: Spurk

Counterfeit-CD: UE 98410; white/black disc

Spain

1975: Virgin/Ariola

LP: 88 754-I; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: 88 754-I; red/green labels, foc

1987: Virgin/CBC

LP: E-88 754; dark-red/green labels, foc

198?: Virgin/Polygram

LP: E-88 754; red/green labels, foc

UK

1975: Virgin

LP: V 2025; multi-coloured labels, foc

LP: V 2025; green labels, foc

LP: V 2025; red labels, foc

LP: V 2025; red/green labels, foc

1984: Virgin

LP: OVED 27; red/green labels, foc

LP: OVED 27; white/grey labels, foc

CD: CDV 2025

1995: Virgin

CD: TAND 6

2010: Virgin

LP: VR 2025; multi-coloured labels, foc

USA

1975: Virgin/Atlantic

Promo-LP: VR 13-116; black/white promo labels saying 'sample copy' with numbers ST-VR-753333/34-DJPR; Rubycon, Part One is split in three sections: A 5:48, B 7:38, C 4:08; Rubycon, Part Two is split in three sections: A 4:20, B 6:50, C 6:31

Promo-LP: VR 13-116; black/white promo labels saying 'promotional copy' with numbers ST-VR-753333/34-DJ-MO; some covers with orange sticker 'Promotional Copy - Not For Sale'; Rubycon, Part One and Rubycon, Part Two are split in three sections each (see above)

LP: VR 13-116; black/white labels with numbers ST-VR-753333/34-DJ-RI; Rubycon, Part One and Rubycon, Part Two are split in three sections each (see above)